


Blossomed

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [10]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fae & Fairies, Fix-It, Fluff, Gen, Mentors, Sisters, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-02
Updated: 2013-11-02
Packaged: 2017-12-31 06:01:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1028113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's practically Sookie's responsibility as a fellow part-fairy to whisk the suddenly-teenaged Bellefleur girls out of the potentially dangerous night and try to teach them about teenager culture a bit, so she's going to do it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blossomed

**Author's Note:**

> Part two, "The One That Got Away."

“Guys, I think it’s happening again.”

“Stop kicking me!”

“Turn on the light, then!”

“She still might kick even if the light’s on.”

Danika’s the closest to the switch, so she reaches over to flip it – that’s easier than it used to be, given that her arms are longer now – and suddenly there are four teenage girls in kids’ nightgowns blinking at each other.

“Adilyn?” Danika asks, because they’ve gotten used to doing roll call whenever they suddenly grow.  Not that they don’t know which one of them is which, and not that they aren’t all four clearly here, but it’s comforting somehow.  Routine or something, which leads to stability, which is nice considering how crazily unstable their few days of life and growing have been.

Adilyn nods.  “Braelyn?”

Braelyn grins, shamelessly grabbing her now-developed chest.  “Check this out!”

Adilyn rolls her eyes.  “We’ve all got them now, it’s not that exciting,” she says.

“Yeah-huh, mine are the nicest,” Braelyn declares smugly.  “Oh, yeah.  Charlaine?”

“Yeah,” Charlaine says.  “Danika?”

“Present,” Danika says, more for completeness’ sake than anything.

“What time is it?” Charlaine asks.

“Almost 11:30,” Braelyn says, rolling over on her stomach to look at the clock on the nightstand.  “Which means the night is young.”

“Oh, no,” Adilyn cautions.  “We shouldn’t do anything stupid, Dad’s got enough to worry about.”

“What’s stupid about goin’ out?” Charlaine interjects.

“And we could get something to drink,” Braelyn exclaims gleefully.  “Find someplace fun.”

“Who knows how long it is until we’re _old_ ,” Charlaine adds.

“Yeah, we oughta,” Danika chimes in, staring with puppy eyes.  Well, Adilyn’s the oldest, it’s her who they have to convince.

“Fine,” she says after a moment’s pause.  “Let’s get out of these goofy pajamas, though.”

 

* * *

 

“Girls?”

“Busted,” Danika whispers as all four of them turn slowly around to face Sookie.  Oh-so-sneakily, Charlaine shifts the case of beer behind her back.

“Hey, Sookie,” Adilyn and Braelyn say.

“Y’all grew again,” Sookie observes cheerily, regarding them.  They’re all about her height now – Charlaine’s a little shorter, Danika’s a little taller – and varyingly self-possessed – Braelyn looks confident as she can be in her new body, Adilyn looks a bit gawky – and she can’t help but be glad she herself didn’t have to go through all these crazy fairy growth spurts.  “Pretty recent, I'm guessin’?”

“Oh, yeah,” Adilyn says.  “Only a few hours ago.”

“S’why we kinda stole clothes from Aunt Arlene,” Braelyn whispers, like that’s the worst they’re up to.  “Don’t tell?”

“I don’t think Arlene’s gonna mind,” Sookie says conspiratorially.  “She could hardly expect you to go out in kids’ clothes, right?”

“Right,” Adilyn agrees.

“So whatcha up to?” Sookie asks casually, but given that they can all of them read each other’s minds, it’s not like any of this is a secret.

“Don’t tell?” Braelyn repeats, more timidly this time and just a touch pitiful.

“C’mon,” Sookie cajoles.  “Why don’t you just put the beer back, we can go to my place, I’ve got ice cream.”

“Ice cream is dumb,” Charlaine declares petulantly.  It’s baby stuff, is what.  Of course, Adilyn smacks her on the arm for saying that, but she shrugs it off.

“It’s just, y’know,” Danika says shyly, “We kinda just didn’t want, y’know…”

“To let this go to waste,” Braelyn supplies. 

Sookie tilts her head.  “You guys look about as old as most of the fairies I’ve known,” she says.  “I dunno exactly how all this works, I’m not even half-blood an’ I grew up normal, but maybe you’re leveling out.”

The girls look at each other curiously.

“Yeah?” Danika asks.

“Probably,” Sookie shrugs.  “So how ‘bout we have a slumber party or something.  Y’all don’t need to be in a rush to grow up.”

“Bein’ a kid is no fun,” Charlaine whines.  “Bein’ a grown-up is way better.  You get to do more stuff.”

“Yeah,” Sookie concurs, “But you don’t wanna start in the middle.  Have you even seen a PG-13 movie yet?”

“Uncle Terry let us watch part of one,” Adilyn admits.  “But I’m pretty sure that was just ‘cause they said a couple bad words.”

“See,” Sookie declares.  “I’m gonna call your dad to make sure he knows where you are –”  That with a reproachful glance at them, since they hadn’t exactly told before they skipped out – “And then we’re gonna go to my house, park on the couch, and we can watch movies and do all the other things you’re supposed to do when you’re a teenager.”

Well, Sookie had done them when she was, but she’s glad to help the Bellefleur girls figure it out, too.  And knowing what she knows about the vampire situation out there, not to mention what she knows about how fairies attract vampires, getting them safely out of the way of any marauding, hungry strangers seems like the responsible thing to do.

Braelyn and Charlaine and Danica all look to Adilyn, and she nods, so they all nod.  “Yeah, okay,” she says.  “Let’s do it.  Maybe, I dunno, could we…”

“Could we raid your closet,” Braelyn finishes.  Well, Aunt Arlene dresses better than a lot of women her age, but still.

“’Course,” Sookie smiles, taking the case from Charlaine and setting it down.  “And if ice cream is dumb, I don’t have anything to feed you guys, so I’m gonna let you pick out your own snacks, my treat.”

 

* * *

 

“So I almost popped in _The Breakfast Club_ , but I realized that’d be a little too much of a cliché,” Sookie grins, waving a copy of _Mean Girls_ at her guests.

True to her word, she let them borrow clothes – outfits for the morning, pajamas for their little pajama party.  (“Didn’t we just take off our jammies?” Charlaine pointed out, but Adilyn shushed her and they all said their thank-yous with big, brilliant smiles.)

“What’s _The Breakfast Club_?” Danika asks.

“It’s a high school movie from the 80s,” Sookie explains.

“What’s – _Mean Girls_ , then?” Braelyn asks, craning to look at the title on the box while Sookie sets up.

“It’s a high school movie from 2004,” Sookie says with a shrug.  “You’re probably gonna wanna see both of them someday.  There’s some movies that you kinda have to know just so you understand everyone else’s jokes.”

“We’re gonna have to know stuff like that for if we ever leave Bon Temps, huh?” Adilyn asks, and after a moment something else occurs to her.  “We aren’t allowed to talk about bein’ part-fairy with strangers, are we?”

Sookie wrinkles her nose.  “I wouldn’t say not _allowed_ ,” she amends, “But it’s not something most people know about or understand.  Vampires came out, but a lotta supes haven’t yet.”

“Like shifters and werewolves,” Charlaine interjects, immediately explaining just in case Sookie was wondering (she wasn’t, she figured it out), “I heard Lafayette thinkin’ about Sam an’ his girlfriend an’ her daughter.”

“Yeah, Sam and Luna are shifters, and Emma’s a werewolf,” Sookie agrees.  “But if they don’t want other folks to know that then you don’t tell, okay?  ’Specially not about Emma, she's just a kid.  You guys are gonna get used to hearin’ a lot of secrets you can’t share.”

“We understand,” Adilyn and Danika say.

 

* * *

 

They’re halfway through the movie when Charlaine suddenly nudges Sookie and asks, “Who’s Bill?”

Sookie grimaces.  “Remember you oughta keep out of people’s heads if you can,” she says.

“Still learnin’ how,” Charlaine shrugs.  “’Sides, you’re loud.”

“Bill – he was my ex,” Sookie explains tersely.  They can pick up the details, she doesn’t much wanna talk about them.

Braelyn wrestles the remote from her and pauses the movie.  “You dated a vampire,” she exclaims.  “Cool.”

“Less cool than you think,” Sookie sighs.  She reaches for the bowl of popcorn and takes a handful to give her a moment to think over her words.  “And more than a little dangerous.”

“But kinda romantic, yeah?” Danika presses.

“At first, maybe,” Sookie mutters.  “And I’m not sayin’ all vampires are bad.  They’re not.  But Bill…”  She shakes her head.  “He is.  I know he’s your dad’s kin or whatever, but stay the fuck away from him.”

All the girls look delightfully scandalized.  They’re still not used to people not trying to make their vocabulary PG in their presence.

“And we’ve gotta be more careful than most people,” Sookie adds.  “Vampires – they go totally nuts for fairies, ‘cause of the way our blood smells.”

Adilyn frowns.  “Why didn’t our dad warn us about that, with all the vampire shit goin’ on?”  She says it to test the waters, see if she’s gonna get called out for swearing even if Sookie did it, and she breathes a sigh of relief when she doesn’t.

“It’s possible he didn’t know,” Sookie points out.  “It’s not really common knowledge.”

“Oh,” Adilyn says.  “So – so that’s why Bill attacked you that time.”

“Uh-huh,” Sookie confirms.  “Just… be careful out there, okay?”

“Okay, Aunt Sookie,” Charlaine and Danika chorus.

“Now, back to the movie,” Sookie declares.  “If I remember right there’s gonna be a dance number comin’ up soon.”

 

* * *

 

“Is high school really like this?” Adilyn asks, making a face at the television screen as the credits roll.

“Sorta,” Sookie says.  “It’s exaggerated to make a point.  I remember when Tara and I first saw this, we kept seein’ people we knew in the goofy jokes.”

“Tara,” Danika repeats after a moment of listening in.  “The vampire, the one who was your best friend?”

“Yeah,” Sookie says.  “Neither of us were all that popular back when.”

“I don’t see why,” Braelyn declares.  “You’re pretty good-looking an’ friendly, isn’t that what it’s about?”  That’s what it's about on TV, anyway.

“I was a weirdo is what I was,” Sookie says wryly.  “I didn’t have anyone to teach me how to deal with readin’ minds or tell me why I was able to, an’ I didn’t have the advantage of speeding through my awkward years to get all the confusing stuff outta the way.”

“So being normal isn’t fun?” Adilyn whispers.  It’s something she’s been wondering about.

“Having to pretend to be isn’t,” Sookie corrects.  “I dunno what normal even means, and sure, sometimes I wish I did, but this is who I am, this is what I gotta deal with, so I might as well make the best of it, ‘cause nothing’s gonna change just by me wishing, much as I wanted it to.”  She turns more serious, looking each girl in the eye in turn.  It’s more important to her than she can say to give the girls the advice about being fae-bearing that she didn’t get herself. “Don’t wish away what makes you special, ’kay?  Just know what you gotta watch out for.”


End file.
